Center working on ownership agreement

Eastern is currently working on an agreement between the university and Madison County officials to make governing the EKU Center for the Arts clearer.

This agreement would decide how the university and joint owners of the Center would govern the position of exexecutive director of the Center.

Eastern President Doug Whitlock is currently reaching out to the mayors of Richmond and Berea, as well as the Madison County judge executive, to get the referendum into motion.

Harry Moberly, chair of the Center for the Arts Community Operations Board, said the board is waiting for Whitlock to make contact before moving forward with the director search.

“We will probably wait to hear from the president and make a decision about how we’re going to proceed before the next meeting,” Moberly said.

Though the director search itself was not heavily discussed at last week’s meeting, Moberly said the Board is still preparing to take action and clear the blurred lines between the executive director and joint owners of the Center.

“We’re still in the process of talking with the university to try to determine the reporting lines of the executive director,” Moberly said. “We’re trying to determine how the Board will want to move forward. We won’t be taking any further action until the meeting in February.”

Moberly said he hopes to have a lot of input from the rest of the Board by its next meeting Feb. 20.

“I asked the members to consider how they’d like to move forward and let me know before the next meeting,” Moberly said.

Issues regarding the management of the director of the EKU Center for the Arts came about in June when Eastern attempted to fire then-director Debra Hoskins. However, the Board disagreed with the university and said it did not have the authority to fire her. A few weeks later, Hoskins resigned from her position.

Jill Price, who has been serving as interim director of the Center since July, will continue to fill in until the Board finds a permanent director.